Quotes of the year

By Brendan Gallagher

12:01AM GMT 26 Dec 2002

"As far as I am aware there is actually no history of cannibalism on Niue Island. We just talk a good game - brave words to bolster our courage against invaders and opposition All Blacks." - Mohe Maugavalu, Niue Island's official warrior, whose haka describes graphically how they are going to eat you alive.

"How rich is that coming from a guy who could be passed off as a turnstile? He has so much wind he ought to go to Holland with the windmills. I make more tackles in a season than he did in a career." - Wendell Sailor goes in low after being accused of being an overpaid, non-tackling,league export by David Campese.

"All of a sudden a wave came and swept my baggies off and away from me. I stayed in the surf and paddled away waiting for a lifeguard to bring me some new pants. I couldn't get out. I couldn't risk more front-page headlines." - Springbok hooker James Dalton comes clean about his supposed rescue by Durban lifeguards recently. Initial reports stated he had been saved from a life-threatening situation by the coastguard.

'We liked it so much that we went back the next day and played again, although we were politely told that running down the green and jumping on each other perhaps wasn't the done thing." - Richard Hill recalls his introduction to crowngreenbowling with Saracens colleagues Kyran Bracken and KrisChesney.

"I'd wondered why the Russians drink so much vodka, but when you're sat in your living room, there's nothing on the TV, and it's minus 25 degrees outside, you start to understand." - Russia's South African coach James Stoffberg on how the Russian climate can seriously damage your health.

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"People talk about it as a charity match, a whipround in the pub to help buy the next round. It is not. It is the last throw of the dice, the last lifeline before professional rugby in the second tier of world rugby collapses in on itself." - Pio Bosco Tikoisuva, the chief executiveof the Fiji Rugby Union,on theneed for help for the smallerunions amid calls for the cancellation of the North v South clash at Twickenham.

"F*** you, Laurie! When I come to breakfast first I end up sitting on my own, but if I come to breakfast later, I'm expected to sit with the white guys. Why do we always have to make concessions?" - Former Springbok wing Chester Williams lifts the lid on alleged racial problems during his time with the Cats, who were then coached by Laurie Mains, in his controversial autobiography.

"Rugby has always been there for me, even if I have occasionally gone AWOL. I have enjoyed its many pleasures as a player and a spectator. Very little on this earth can beat soaking your body back to life in a warm bath after an afternoon of cold rain, mud and pain with the prospect of pints and high jinks ahead. A warm glow envelopes you." - Richard Harris on his life-long love affair with the game.